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Features

• Type: 3rd Person Adventure/RPG
• Developer: Pyrotechnix
• Publisher: Sierra Studios
• Release Date: ??
• Explore the city of Krondor and several locations along the coast of the Kingdom of the Isles
• Make use of the interesting alchemy system and the picklocking system, two very complex features!
• Toss around a variety of spells (40 of which can be used by mages, and the other 20 by the priest)
• Command the movements of five characters James (a.k.a. Jimmy the Hand), William conDoin, Jazhara, Kendaric and Solon.

Requirements

Miniumum
• Windows 95/98
• DirectX 5.0+
• P166
• 32 MB RAM
• PCI SVGA video with 2 MB RAM
• 4X CD-ROM drive
• Windows compatible sound card
• approx. 120 MB free HD space

Recommended
• PII 233
• 64 MB RAM
• Direct3D or 3Dfx compliant video card
• 16-bit sound card

Review

It’s predecessor, Betrayal at Krondor, was a great game of its time so naturally many looked forward to the sequel being just as good or perhaps, even better. It was expected to come out two years after the release of Betrayal at Krondor but the two years turned into five years. In those five years, 7th Level, the company who bought the rights from Sierra, suffered severe financial problems and began to sell off their games, Return to Krondor being one of them. After the flop of Betrayal in Antara, Sierra leapt at the chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the gaming community. They bought Return to Krondor as well as the Cincinnati based Pyrotechnic, the company bought by 7th Level to make the game.

I, like so many others, waited rather impatiently for the release of Return to Krondor and hated 7th Level all the more when they pushed the release date back even further. When I read an article in PC Gamer about Sierra buying Return to Krondor, I cried, "Thank you, GOD!" At last, things were about to change.

I installed the beta, browsed through the manual, which was rather informative and listened to the gothic music of Return to Krondor. The opening cinematic drew me in immediately with the many sounds of thunder and lightning and the crashing of waves against the Ishapian vessel carrying a powerful artifact known as the Tear of the Gods. The scarred mercenary known as Bear along with a cadre of pirates tries quite unsuccessfully to take the artifact from the ship, for it sinks before he can reach it. I especially enjoyed when Bear cries "No! I had it in my hand!" a scream of pure anguish if ever I heard one.

Being quite ticked at himself for fouling up, he heads off to the city of Krondor to relax and to plan his next move. During the course of these events, Bear kills a barmaid at a local tavern who happens to be William conDoin’s current love interest. William is just one of the five characters you get to control in your attempt to bring Bear to justice. Along the way, you discover more of Bear and his plans to recover the Tear. Your goal is to stop Bear and to retrieve the Tear of the Gods and return it to the Church of Ishap.

As I started off in the prologue, wandering about the city of Krondor with Squire James (a.k.a. Jimmy the Hand, for those who have read the works of Raymond Feist, on which the games are based on) in search of the city’s new court mage, Jazhara. Return to Krondor uses Pyrotechnic’s True3D engine so instead of traveling in the first person like in Betrayal at Krondor, you travel in the third person. Traveling is a bit tricky because as you reach a certain point, the view changes to a different perspective. Therefore, on your first pass through a street, you may not see a shop or some other place of importance. The graphics of Return to Krondor are very well done, especially the backgrounds, which were pre-rendered and edited in Adobe PhotoShop.

Unlike Betrayal at Krondor in which every line of dialogue appeared in a dialogue box, the dialogue of Return to Krondor is entirely made up of voice acting. Incredibly, the voice acting is top notch and very well done. The accents of each character, from Squire James, to the eccentric old witch at Haldon’s Head adds an important part to the atmosphere of the game. The music of Return to Krondor also has this effect. (The music was written and orchestrated by Charles Mitchell of Voice Incorporated who also oversaw the voice acting.)

Return to Krondor improved on several things that were lacking in Betrayal at Krondor. Return to Krondor boasts of many locks and traps of which your thief (the reformed Squire James) has to disarm. There are three parts to each trap and a tool to disarm each mechanism of the trap. When you select a tool and click on one of the parts, a dial appears and a arrow begins its rotation. To disarm it, you have to get the arrow as close to the bottom center as possible. Each tool has a chance to disarm it though you will have a bigger chance of success if you choose the right tool. Another improvement is the combat system because in Betrayal at Krondor you saw battle from just one perspective and you might not see an enemy lurking behind a tree. In Return to Krondor, you can change the view at will in order to get a better understanding of the situation.

Yet another improvement was the character advancement system which was lacking in Betrayal at Krondor. In Betrayal at Krondor, characters advanced in certain skills through combat, training with a swordmaster, strumming a lyre at a local tavern and other things. In Return to Krondor, when a character reaches a certain amount of experience points, he or she goes up a level and is giving a hundred points which he or she may distribute to different skills. When a mage goes up a level, they have a choice to add points either to their skills, their magic or even both.

No fantasy role-playing/adventure game would be complete without magic and Return to Krondor has plenty of it. Return to Krondor boasts of sixty spells divided into six paths of magic. Four of these paths can be used by Jazhara and Kendaric while the other two can only be used by Solon, the Warrior Priest of the Ishapian Church. The spell effects are quite nice. My only complaint is that some spells are merely a variant of others. There isn’t enough diversity as there was in Betrayal at Krondor.

If your worried about your mages being low on mana, never fear, for you have another weapon to add to your arsenal, Alchemy. With a complex alchemy system, you can make potions of healing, Quegan fire oil, which can be launched at your enemies, as well as other potions that could change the course of a battle. Depending on the skill of your mage (only mages can make potions) in alchemy, there is a chance that your potion could go awry and you might end up losing some of your alchemy equipment or worse.

One major complaint that I have for Return to Krondor is its length. Some of the chapters are entirely too short. Several chapters are small because they only have one battle and some dialogue in it. I have heard that some people completed it in a week or even days while others who preferred to enjoy themselves and take their time, took considerably longer. Another gripe that comes to mind is that Krondor should have been bigger with more areas to explore and more people to see. It would have been nice to see characters like Amos Trask, Martin Longbow, or perhaps the rambling brilliance of Nakor the Isalani.

Despite my complaints, I found Return to Krondor to be an enjoyable game filled with combat, magic, and adventure. It improved on many things that gamers found lacking in Betrayal at Krondor, as well adding some interesting features like the alchemy system. Those who were captivated by the books or a good adventure will love this game, while those that aren’t fans of the books maybe a little disappointed. I have read many reviews on Return to Krondor and some of them judge the game too harshly. The only problem is that these writers expected too much from the game and its their expectations that killed it. For those of you who haven't played Return to Krondor and are thinking about purchasing it, please keep an open mind and weigh each every review as a grain of salt. Overall, Return to Krondor is a good game with some minor flaws that kept it from truly being the masterpiece it should have been.

Screenshots

The Character Screen	A Royal Court	Exploring the Outdoors

Links

• Sierra - Official site, pretty informative
• Jeff's Return to Krondor Site - Probably the only good RtK site out there.  Hasn't been updated in a while but its pretty informative.

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